The Real Russia. Today. Then and now: the first generation of Donbas separatist leaders; flip-flopping Putin’s approval ratings; and Elton John’s biopic gets censored in Russia

Friday, May 31, 2019

This day in history: 22 years ago, on May 31, 1997, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma met in Kyiv and signed the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership. The agreement expired on March 31, 2019, following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas region.

• Five years ago, the bloodiest European war of the 21st century began in eastern Ukraine. Here’s what’s become of those early separatist leaders.
• The Kremlin’s lightning-fast flip-flop on Putin’s approval rating: A timeline
• Russian version of new Elton John biopic, ‘Rocketman,’ removes all gay scenes
• A censored edit of ‘Rocketman’ premieres in Moscow, unleashing a meme war
• Russian experimental theater director arrested on Red Square for holding poster that reads ‘Against the Stanislavsky method’
• Science and Education Ministry defends controversial changes in attestation commission as prominent academics protest

Where are they now? ⌛

Full-scale combat started in eastern Ukraine on May 26, 2014, with the battle for Donetsk airport. The Ukrainian army faced off against separatists from two self-declared “people’s republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk, and by extension the Russian military, which offered its unofficial support. The “active stage” of fighting continued until February 2015, when the Minsk II agreement was signed. According to the UN, the conflict in eastern Ukraine has claimed at least 13,000 lives. Almost none of the figures who led the initial protests against the Ukrainian government or the subsequent fighting against Ukrainian troops remain in today’s separatist leadership. In fact, many of these men have been killed. To learn what happened to the first leaders of the Donbas, Meduza spoke to people who knew them and to others who witnessed the dramatic events of 2014.

Read Meduza‘s report: “Five years ago, the bloodiest European war of the 21st century began in eastern Ukraine. Here’s what’s become of those early separatist leaders.”

Lies, damned lies, and statistics 📊

VTsIOM, a fully state-owned Russian polling agency, changed the methodology behind its presidential approval rating surveys after Vladimir Putin’s approval numbers fell to their lowest point in history. Both versions of the poll measure approval in terms of “trust,” but formerly, the agency’s employees asked respondents an open-ended question: “Which of the following politicians do you trust?” In its most recent poll, VTsIOM asked multiple close-ended questions instead, requesting that each respondent offer an opinion on each politician listed in turn. The change enabled the agency to ask respondents directly, “Do you trust Vladimir Putin?” The president’s ratings under the old and new methodologies are radically different.

Follow the timeline of events here.

An Elton John biopic without Elton John 🚀

Moviegoers in Russia won’t see the full version of “Rocketman,” a new biopic from Paramount Pictures about the musician Elton John, starring Taron Egerton. At the film’s premiere in Moscow on May 30, journalists learned that the Russian edit of the movie cuts all scenes showing men kissing and engaging in sexual intimacy. All scenes showing the use of illegal narcotics have also been removed.

According to film critic Anton Dolin, who attended the Moscow premiere, the Russian version of “Rocketman” censors “five crucial minutes that are vital to the picture’s artistic design.” Fellow critic Egor Moskvitin, who saw the full version of the movie at the Cannes Film Festival, says the epilogue in the Russian edit removes language about Elton John meeting the love of his life and a photograph of the happy couple together.

The film’s distributor in Russia, “Central Partnership,” told the news agency TASS that the movie was changed “to comply with the laws of the Russian Federation.” Russia’s Culture Ministry told RIA Novosti, however, that it made no recommendations to the distributor about removing scenes from “Rocketman.” “This was exclusively the company’s decision,” an official spokesperson said.

“Rocketman” is scheduled for release in Russia on June 6. The film is restricted to adults.

• This March, a censored version of the Freddie Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” hit theaters in China, removing five scenes that mentioned Mercury’s homosexuality. Rated “18 or older,” the film was released uncensored in Russia in November 2018.

The film distributor has come in for harsh criticism on Twitter, where Russians have argued that the censored version of the movie presents an entirely different Elton John, robbed of his love life and his adventures with drugs.

Check out some of the memes: “A censored edit of ‘Rocketman’ premieres in Moscow, unleashing a meme war”

News briefs

• ✊ Alexey Yershov, the director of Theater To Go, was arrested on Red Square after he stood at the Moscow landmark holding a poster with the slogan “Against the Stanislavsky Method,” journalist and Pussy Riot member Pyotr Verzilov reported. Read more about this “theatrical laboratory” run here.
• 🎓 This week, a new roster was announced for Russia’s Higher Attestation Commission, which is charged with forming dissertation committees and reviewing defended dissertations. The roster triggered a heated controversy among many of the country’s leading academics. Read about “when eggheads collide” here.